UP TO 1,000 Irish breast cancer patients a year could avoid having large-scale underarm lymph nodes removed and avoid painful consequences if recent research is heeded in Ireland, a breast cancer surgeon said.
Malcolm Kell, a consultant surgeon with the Mater Misericordiae Hospital in Dublin and BreastCheck, said the study was “the most significant breakthrough in breast cancer surgery in the past decade”.
The study, published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, found that the standard practice of large-scale underarm lymph node removal to stop spread of cancer did not affect survival rates in early-stage breast cancer patients.
Despite the strong evidence Mr Kell said that in Ireland the removal of most or all lymph glands is still standard practice. Surgeons remove one or two nodes in the biopsy to assess if there is secondary cancer and then it is traditional to go back and remove everything, he added.
While there has been a big move away from large-scale lymph node removal in the US in the past year it has still not “sunk in” in Ireland, he said.
Yet women could avoid the risk of lymphedema with symptoms including frozen shoulder and swollen arms and hands. The US trial involved almost 900 early stage breast cancer patients.
